Past, Present and Future Monitoring at the Vallcebre Landslide (Eastern Pyrenees, Spain)

Featured Application Monitoring of very slow landslides with Classical and Novel Techniques. Works carried out to monitor the displacements of the Vallcebre landslide (Pyrenees range, NE of Spain) since 1987 are presented. The landslide, which extends over an area of about 0.8 km(2) and affects more than 20 x 10(6) m(3), has experienced displacements of up to one meter per year in some points and periods. It has been periodically monitored since 1987, using a wide range of surface and in-hole techniques: triangulation with theodolite, Terrestrial Photogrammetry, Electronic Distance Measurement, GNSS-GPS, inclinometers, wire extensometers, piezometers, DInSAR (satellite) and GBSAR (terrestrial). The results obtained using new techniques are compared with those obtained with GNSS-GPS and a wire extensometer, and checked against fixed stable points. From this comparison, we conclude that even though wire extensometers and inclinometers may have the highest precision, in practice, all systems play potentially valuable roles in providing meaningful data for monitoring at different study stages. In the near future, we envisage the installation of a Distributed Fiber Optic array to monitor the risk with a certain space and time continuity. After the evaluation of the precision and advantages of the different methods, the complementary use of some of them is strongly recommended.

Automated summary

The study presents the monitoring of the Vallcebre landslide in the Pyrenees range, NE of Spain, since 1987 using a variety of traditional and novel techniques. The results show that different monitoring methods can all provide valuable data and recommend the complementary use of these methods in practice.